236. Light and Truth

Recently, a man who is a believer walked into one of our meetings and said, “It is so strange that Christians these days cannot bear to hear the truth.”

How true that is. People do not love the truth, and yet Jesus says, “I am the truth.” They welcome grace and revival, but are not at all interested in truth or righteousness. That was not how it was for David. He says:

“Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle.” Psalm 43:3.

It is God’s light and truth that lead us to Mount Zion and to His tabernacle. Through light and truth we meet the most upright souls on the earth. But those who will not walk in light and truth will never see His tabernacle. They will meet people who are more or less unrighteous; in other words, they meet people like themselves. Light and truth lead us to God’s altar, to the God of our peace and our exceeding joy. Psalm 43:4. It is the altar that people are afraid of; they loathe the cross and the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. Therefore neither do they come to our God of all joy and gladness. The joy of the Lord which is our strength is not able to express itself fully because people do not love righteousness and hate lawlessness with all their heart. These truths are inseparable.

“You love righteousness and hatd wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions. All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.” Psalm 45:7-8.

Here we can see the reward for the love of truth and righteousness. People can love gladness; but they never come to the source of gladness because they are unwilling to go the way to gladness, which is through truth.

But those who walk in the truth come to the God of our strength and to His altars and His tabernacle. They come to the “fellowship of the saints.”

“The royal daughter is all glorious within.

“Her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors; the virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You. With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought; they shall enter the King’s palace.” Psalm 45:13-15 [Norw.].

This is spoken about souls who have received a love for the truth. They have received a love for the truth about their own wretchedness. With this they have pressed in to God’s altar where the fire has consumed, refined and purified them, so that they have become “all glorious,” and their clothing (deeds) are woven with gold.

Christians of our time claim to be rich and lacking in nothing, and yet the vast majority of them are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Rev. 3:17. Why is that? It is because they do not love righteousness, and they do not hate iniquity enough to receive God’s power and God’s joy. They cultivate relationships with ungodly people and lose their power. Hos. 7:8-9. The priests do not live separated from the world and its activities. On the contrary, they become involved in all kinds of things which do not have anything to do with the kingdom of God. Actually, they would probably become very unpopular in their calling as priests if they devoted themselves exclusively to the fear of God. For this same reason, the joy and power are absent. Divine light must then be substituted with dead knowledge, and no true believer can live by that. This was also the case with Israel of old. (See Ezekiel 44 from verse 10 and Luke 11:37 to the end of the chapter.) There is nothing new under the sun.

He therefore who seeks light and truth will inevitably be at odds with the priesthood of our time, and he will even find himself at odds with most of the preachers of our time. Ultimately he will come to God’s dwellings, that is, to those who walk in the light as He is in the light. This also is from the Lord.